Customers rate us 4.9/5 based on 428 reviews.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything we are most often asked, gathered in one place. If your question is not here, email us at info@ralphsorchard.com and we will come back to you within one working day.

Ordering and Delivery

How quickly will my order be dispatched?

We dispatch next working day. Orders placed on a Friday or over the weekend go out on Monday, and we do not dispatch on UK bank holidays.

Custom and personalised orders take longer. We will always confirm the timeline with you before you order, and any extended dispatch time is shown at checkout.

How much is delivery and how long does it take?

UK delivery starts at £3.50, and is free on orders over £50.

We send most parcels by Royal Mail or Evri, which typically arrive within two to three working days of dispatch. A 1st Class upgrade is available at checkout if you need something sooner. Delivery times are set by the carrier rather than by us, and can run longer during December.

Full details are on our shipping page.

Can I change or cancel my order after placing it?

Get in touch as quickly as you can at info@ralphsorchard.com. Because we dispatch quickly there is only a short window, but if your parcel has not yet gone out we will happily amend or cancel it.

Do you ship internationally?

Yes. We ship worldwide, including to the United States, Canada and Switzerland.

Postage is charged at a standard parcel rate. If your parcel costs us more to send than we have charged you, we absorb the difference and will never ask you for more. Any import duties or taxes charged by your own country are your responsibility, and are not included in the price you pay us.

Do you ship to the EU?

Not at present. Changes to EU product regulations mean we are not currently able to send orders into the EU. We are sorry for the inconvenience, and we will update this page if that changes.

Do you offer gift wrapping or a gift message?

We do offer gifting options, these can vary per item because many of our vessels are too large for the gift boxes or are fragile and need the padding more than they need paper.

We also offer gift messaging. Add your message in the Order Special Instructions box in your cart and we will include it for you.

We never include a paper receipt in gift parcels, since your receipt is emailed to you at the time of purchase.

How do candle subscriptions work?

Each month we send a candle in our classic matte black or silver tin, in a different scent. You can pause or cancel at any time from your account after minimum initial term of 3 months. Full terms are on our cancellation policy page.

How do rewards and points work?

Ralph's Orchard Rewards lets you earn points on every order and redeem them against future purchases. You can see your balance and what it is worth on our rewards page.

Returns and Problems

What if my parcel arrives damaged?

Please email us at info@ralphsorchard.com within 48 hours of delivery with a photograph of the damage, and we will arrange a replacement or a refund, whichever you prefer. There is no need to send the item back to us.

Can I return a candle if I do not like the scent?

Unused and unopened items can be returned within 14 days of delivery for a full refund. Return postage is yours unless the item was faulty or incorrect. Because candles are scented products, we are not able to accept returns once a candle has been lit.

My candle does not look quite like the photograph

Our Repurposed and Found & Refilled candles are made in single quantities from vessels we source individually, so each one differs slightly. Every listing shows photographs of the actual piece you will receive.

Natural wax also behaves differently from paraffin. Small variations in colour, surface texture and finish are normal and do not affect how the candle burns or smells.

Something else has gone wrong

Email info@ralphsorchard.com or use our contact form.

Full terms are in our refund policy.

Choosing a Scent

How do I choose a fragrance without smelling it first?

Our fragrance guide describes every scent in the range in detail, including the notes it opens and settles into.

Our fragrance quiz asks a few questions about what you already like and suggests scents to match.

Which of your scents are the strongest?

We fragrance every candle to the maximum the wax will hold, so scent throw is consistent across the range. What varies more is the character of the fragrance. Resinous and woody scents such as Frankincense & Myrrh, Fireside and Honey & Molten Amber fill a room readily. Lighter, fresher scents such as Drift and Lavender are gentler by nature.

Room size matters as much as the candle. A single-wick tin suits a bedroom or bathroom. For a larger open space, a three-wick vessel or a wax melt will carry further.

Wax melts or candles?

It depends what you are after.

Candles give you the flame, which is much of the pleasure, and the vessel stays decorative when unlit. Wax melts throw scent more strongly for their size and cost less per fragrance, which makes them a good way to try several.

Melts need an unscented tealight to warm the burner. Use a natural wax tealight rather than paraffin, or you undo the point of choosing a cleaner wax in the first place. Ours are here.

Our Candles and Ingredients

What wax do you use?

A blend of soy, coconut and rapeseed wax. All three are plant based, biodegradable and free from paraffin.

Rapeseed is grown in the UK and Europe, which keeps the transport footprint low. Coconut wax holds fragrance particularly well. Soy gives a clean, even burn. Blending them gives a better result than any one of the three on its own.

Are your candles vegan and cruelty-free?

Yes, all of them, including our wax melts. We use no beeswax and no animal-derived ingredients, and none of our fragrances are tested on animals.

Do you use essential oils or fragrance oils?

Mostly fragrance oils, with essential oils in some candles. Where a candle is made with essential oils, we say so clearly on the listing.

All our fragrances are phthalate-free. Phthalates are plasticising chemicals used widely across cosmetics and home fragrance, and we have chosen to work without them. Our blog post on healthier candles goes into the differences between wax and oil types in more depth.

Where are your candles made?

Every candle is hand-poured by us in Crystal Palace, south London. None of our wax goods are made off-site or imported ready-made.

How are your candles made?

We melt the wax, then let it cool to a specific temperature before adding fragrance. Too hot and the fragrance burns off or shifts. At the right temperature the oil blends fully through the wax, which is why our candles hold their scent from the first burn to the last.

The wax then goes into vessels already fitted with organic cotton wicks, and cures for several days in a room with a steady temperature. Curing is the part that cannot be rushed. The longer a candle rests, the better it burns and the better it smells.

Are your candles safe to burn around children and pets?

Any burning wick releases something into the air, which is true of scented candles by definition. Plant waxes release considerably less than paraffin, and we use no paraffin at all.

The more immediate consideration is the flame. Keep candles well out of reach, burn them on a stable heat-resistant surface, and never leave one unattended. Our candle safety page sets out the full guidance.

If a pet or family member is unusually sensitive to fragrance, a lightly scented candle in a well-ventilated room is a sensible starting point.

Can scented candles cause headaches or allergies?

For a small number of people, yes. Some scents trigger headaches in some people, and it tends to relate to fragrance strength and to the individual scent rather than to candles generally. Ours are fragranced to the maximum the wax will hold, which is what most people want and which a few people find too much.

Every product carries a CLP label listing the allergens it contains. Linalool and limonene are the two that appear most frequently in both fragrance and essential oils. If you know you react to something specific, email us before ordering and we will check the label for you.

Is your packaging plastic free?

Our own packaging is, and everything we pour ourselves comes to you plastic free. Where you will still find plastic is in the spray nozzles on our room sprays and mists, and in the outer packaging of some of the bath and body products we resell rather than make. We have not yet found a nozzle that works as well without it, and we would rather tell you that than claim otherwise.

Are your candles CLP compliant?

Yes. Every candle and home fragrance product carries a compliant CLP label, either applied directly to the product or to its tag, showing hazard information, allergens and our contact details.

What does the tree planting and ocean plastic actually mean?

Every order plants one tree and funds the removal of three plastic bottles' worth of plastic from the ocean. It is not an offset we calculate ourselves, and there is more detail on our tree planting page.

Caring for Your Candles

How long will my candle burn?

It varies considerably across the range, from around 20 hours for our smaller vessels to 60 hours and beyond for our larger three-wick pieces.

As a rough guide, plant waxes burn more slowly and at a lower temperature than paraffin, so a natural wax candle will generally outlast a paraffin candle of the same size.

How do I get the best from the first burn?

Let the melted wax reach the edge of the vessel before you put the candle out. On most candles that takes two to three hours.

This matters more than it sounds. Wax has a memory, and if the first burn stops short of the edge the candle will keep burning to that same narrower line every time afterwards.

Why has my candle tunnelled?

Almost always because an early burn was cut short and the wax set a narrow memory ring.

You can often recover it. Burn the candle for three or four uninterrupted hours and the pool will usually widen back out to the edge. If it does not, wrap foil loosely around the top of the vessel, leaving a gap above the flame, and burn for an hour or two. The trapped heat will even the surface out.

Why does my wax look frosty or uneven on top?

Frosting is the small crystalline pattern that appears on the surface of natural wax as it cools. It is a characteristic of plant waxes, it happens more in cooler rooms, and it is a sign the wax has not been treated with additives to suppress it.

It has no effect on burn quality or on scent throw.

How do I trim the wick, and how long should I burn a candle for?

Trim the wick to around 5mm before each burn. An untrimmed wick gives a larger flame, more soot and a shorter candle life.

Burn for no more than four hours at a time, then let the candle cool fully before relighting.

What can I do with the vessel once the candle is finished?

Most of ours are made to be kept. Once the candle has burned down, place the vessel in warm water for a few minutes and the remaining wax will lift out. Tins, copper vessels and ceramics all clean up well and take a second life as a plant pot, brush pot or trinket dish.

Please do not pour melted wax down the sink.

Repurposed and Found & Refilled Candles

What are your Found & Refilled candles?

Candles poured into vessels we source individually, one at a time, from vintage shops, markets and house clearances. A brass bowl, a hand-painted teacup, a piece of studio pottery. Each is cleaned, tested and filled by hand.

They are the part of what we do that we enjoy most, and you can see the current collection here.

Will a vessel I like come back in stock?

No. Each Found & Refilled piece exists once. When it sells, the listing closes and that vessel will not return, because there was only ever one of it.

Similar pieces do appear, so it is worth checking the collection regularly or joining our mailing list, but nothing is ever repeated exactly.

Are repurposed vessels safe to use as candles?

Yes. Every vessel is heat and stress tested before we fill it, and we burn-test the vessel type ourselves before any piece goes on sale.

The one thing we ask is that you do not burn a repurposed candle right to the bottom. Leave a small amount of wax in the base. Plant wax burns cooler than paraffin, which is part of why these vessels work, but no vintage vessel should be taken to the last millimetre.

Trade, Wholesale and Stockists

Do you offer wholesale?

Yes. More details are on our wholesale page, or email info@ralphsorchard.com and we will send you more information.

Do you offer white label or private label?

Yes. We can produce candles and home fragrance under your own branding, with your labels applied to our products, from our standard minimum order quantity.

Email info@ralphsorchard.com with what you have in mind and we will talk it through.

Can I order personalised candles for a wedding or event?

Yes, and we enjoy these. Favours, bridesmaid gifts, corporate gifts and event pieces are all possible, with custom scents and custom labelling.

Have a look through the range first so you have a sense of what you like, then email info@ralphsorchard.com with your numbers and your date.

Shop by Collection:

1 10